Miles of Dirty Trails

High elbows, slow feet.

Back to work this week! If only my body would cooperate with what my mind wants it to do. I want to run all the miles, lift weights, row, ride my bike, swim laps… and but… My energy levels says meh. It is really like having $20 in your pocket on a Monday, and you have to make it last until payday on Friday. You have to weigh every purchase and decide how you can make your money last the longest. I have to do this with every activity in my day – from basic stuff like household chores and a full-time job, to training for races.

Last night I had open water swim and a short run on the plan. I did get out for my OWS, but Kill Creek only had part of the course open. (Apparently they were short on lifeguards.) So I did loops of the 330-meter course. (Normally it is 500).

One thing that made the course a bit more challenging, despite it being shorter, was that now we had a lot of swimmers in a smaller area… Lots more swimmers going out with you, which meant a greater potential for my poor broken finger to get hit or kicked. Also, sighting was more important as we were now swimming out and back instead of a loop. (Which again, increased my odds of a finger disaster). Luckily, I made it out unscathed.

I still am working on my high elbows, and it feel really awkward to me as I am over exaggerating my stroke to get my elbow bent and high. It just feels weird and mechanical to me. In addition, I also read an article about “saving your legs” by not using your legs to kick powerfully. The idea is to kick the minimum to keep your legs high, but not for propulsion. Again… This felt weird to me as I was told in swimming classes to do rapid kicks on the surface of the water. Also, I was having a hard time separating the movement of my arms to my feet. When I slowed down my feet, I slowed down my arms, too… which just made me a slower swimmer than I already was. So… I will think a bit on that.

I really feel down on my swimming sometimes as I am not getting any faster at it. I think it is time to get some actual lessons. I do have to keep reminding myself that when I started triathlon training, I could barely swim. I didn’t know how to breath and making it across a 25m lane was exhausting. Now I can swim all day – just not super-fast. So that is improvement!

How have you improved your swimming? Have you tried lessons? You tube videos? Or are you just trying not to drown?

When I got back home, it was late and I felt like it was a better decision to skip the short run. (I have to make that $20 in energy last!!)